Fertility treatment such as in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) does not increase a woman's risk of cancer despite the hormones used, researchers have found.

Some previous studies had suggested that fertility drugs might be linked with breast, uterine and ovarian cancers.

However, a large study from the University of Lund in Sweden found far fewer women developed one ore more cancers following IVF compared to those who had not had such treatment.

In research reported in 'Human Reproduction,' scientists analysed data from 24,000 women who gave birth after IVF between 1982 and 2006.

They compared rates of cancer in these women to 1.4 million women in the general Swedish population who also gave birth over that period.

Fewer than two per cent of women in the IVF group developed one or more cancers during an average follow-up period of 8 years, compared to close to five per cent of the other group.

After accounting for maternal age, the number of previous pregnancies and smoking status, the overall risk of cancer was about 25 per cent lower for women who had IVF.

'A couple who needs IVF does not have to be afraid that the hormone treatment used - at least those used in Sweden - will carry a risk for the woman to develop cancer,' study leader Dr Bengt Kallen said.

While the risk of ovarian cancer was more than twice as high in the women who had IVF as those who didn't, Dr Kallen suggested that this may be due to abnormalities in ovarian function that could both increase the risk for cancer and the risk for infertility, thus the need for IVF.

'The risk for two common cancers, breast and cervical, was significantly lower than expected,' he said.

He added that this might be due to women who get IVF being healthier than average or, more likely, that IVF-treated women may undergo more cervical and mammography exams.

Children who are conceived using In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) have no increased risk of childhood cancer compared to naturally conceived children, according to a recent study.

The study, conducted by Cancer Research UK, examined data from around 106,000 IVF and other assisted births in Britain across eighteen years, and matched this against information on their cancer diagnoses until the age of 15.

This information, from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the National Registry of Childhood Tumours, showed that the overall cancer rates were remarkably similar across all children.

It found that 108 cancers were diagnosed across the group, compared to the expected 110 in the general population.

The researchers found that IVF caused no increased risk of the most common childhood cancers such as leukaemia, neuroblastoma or retinoblastoma, as well as nervous system and germ cell tumours.

Despite this, the researchers did find a slight increase in the risk of hepatic and bone tumours, specifically a rare form called rhabdomysarcoma.

However, the team were unable to verify whether this elevated risk was due to chance, IVF conception, or other factors such as low birth weight or parental infertility.

Study author Dr. Alastair Sutcliffe of University College London Hospital, said: “Our findings suggest that children conceived with IVF techniques have no greater risk of childhood cancer overall than naturally conceived children.

“These results are reassuring for parents who’ve had children in this way or are thinking about using it to conceive. Up until now it’s been difficult to study the link between using IVF techniques and childhood cancer – which is thankfully a relatively rare event.

"Our study is the largest of its kind to date to look at this link and bigger than all previous studies combined. We will be revisiting the data set in five years time to see if this good news can be further verified as the child population gets older”.

Professor Peter Johnson, Chief Clinician for Cancer Research UK also commented on the research, saying: “A child’s cancer diagnosis is devastating news to any parent. But we’re pleased that this study has found no link between conception using IVF and increased overall cancer risk to children.

“Although survival rates are improving, there’s still some way to go to make sure that all children survive, as well as making treatments kinder and reducing their long-term side effects".

Possibility of Fertility Drugs Increasing the Risk of Breast Cancer is Bleak!

Research that was carried out earlier, had established a connection between increase of risk in breast cancer and fertility drugs. But, the fresh study conducted by the National Cancer Institute shows that this isn’t necessarily the case.

Fertility Drugs

This research was published not too long ago in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, which is a journal from the American Association for Cancer Research. Amongst women, who are not actually having regular ovulation, intake of fertility medication is usually recommended. These drugs help by generating the production of eggs just in the same proportions as the hormones of a woman would produce in a natural way.

Using this medicine can easily help a woman in getting pregnant and it can also be used along with ART (assisted reproductive technologies), just like IVF (in vitro fertilization) and IUI (intrauterine insemination).

Whether these fertility medications do actually increase the risk of breast cancer, has been a subject of discussion for quite a while. But, quite a few such researches have indicated that there is in fact a strong link between the two of them, and the most recent studies conducted by researchers require deeper investigation.

The Chief of the Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Louise A. Brinton explained – “We wanted to evaluate the long-term relationship of fertility medications and breast cancer risk after controlling for other factors that have been shown to be correlated with both breast cancer risk and use of those drugs.”

The results of the study ‘reassures’ women, and the team discovered that women who had taken doses of this fertility medication called clomiphene citrate (brand name Clomid) or gonadotropins were not at an increased risk of getting afflicted with breast cancer as compared to women who were not taking this medication.

Why IVF’s link to ovarian cancer isn’t as simple as the headlines suggest

Figures for the disease are higher for women who have had the treatment but that’s because of fertility problems are a sign of underlying factors

Recently there were newspaper reports linking IVF to a higher risk of ovarian cancer . And yes, it’s true, the cancer figures from women who had undergone IVF did display this tendency.

Reading these reports must have been pretty scary for women who’d had IVF or were contemplating it. They shouldn’t have been.

Researchers at University College London studied the records of more than 255,000 women who’d had IVF since 1991. Within nine years of ­treatment, 386 were diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

The usual rate of ovarian cancer is about one in 75 women over her lifetime. The new figures raise this to one in 55 for women who have had IVF .

However, the rate for ovarian cancer is one in 46 among women who undergo IVF because of ­problems with their fertility. It’s one in 32 for women with endometriosis, a common and painful condition where cells from the uterus migrate to other parts of the body. These women seem to be ­particularly vulnerable.

Change of focus: We need to look at the women who seek IVF rather than the treatment itself

So the headlines were misleading. It’s not IVF itself that raises the risk of ovarian cancer, it’s the reasons behind a woman needing IVF that are linked to ovarian cancer. To be precise, those prone to the condition are women who resort to IVF before their 30s because of fertility problems and women with endometriosis.

This condition is linked to a 135% increase in the risk of developing the cancer, while infertility per se carries a 62% greater risk.

What’s happening here is that IVF is simply flagging up fertility problems related to a greater risk of ovarian cancer – IVF does not cause the disease.

Adam Balen, professor of reproductive ­medicine at the University of Leeds and chairman of the British Fertility Society, throws further light on this picture.

Prof Balen says that if IVF is needed due to a problem with the man, the risk of ovarian cancer isn’t increased.

He adds: “Women who have IVF along with certain conditions, such as ­endometriosis, may be at increased risk of developing ovarian cancer.”

It isn’t related to the number of IVF cycles either. Professor Balen theorised that women who ovulated more might find that the cells in their ovaries had to work harder to repair themselves, increasing the risk of the copying errors that can lead to cancer.

And he sensibly shifted our focus from IVF itself to the women who seek IVF. He suggested women with endometriosis and fertility difficulties should be ­regularly screened for ovarian cancer which has been made easier with a promising new blood test.